EpochParty

Somebody told me that today (Friday 13th February, 2009) we were going to pass a special 'geeky threshold -- 1234567890 in Unix Epoch time (what's that). I was amused. However, being a geek, I was also skeptical. Being a real geek, I did not bother to search the Internet to prove it. I wrote a program:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

int main( int argc, char **argv )
{
    time_t t;
   
    (void) time( &t );
    printf( "Hello world. It is %lu *NIX Time\n", (unsigned long) t );
    
    if( argc > 1 ) {
        printf( "Your number is %d *NIX Time\n", (unsigned long) atol( argv[ 1 ] ) );
    }
   
    return( 0 );
}

Turns out, as I write this, that critter prints this:

Hello world. It is 1234549527 *NIX Time

The tension is palpable. If anyone cares, here is a Windows executable (in base64) that is the compiled result of the above using TCC:

TVqQAAMAAAAEAAAA//8AALgAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAgAAAAA4fug4AtAnNIbgBTM0hVGhpcyBwcm9ncmFtIGNhbm5vdCBiZSBydW4gaW4g

RE9TIG1vZGUuDQ0KJAAAAAAAAABQRQAATAECAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOAADwMLAQYAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAQBAAAAAQAAAAIAAAAABAAAAQAAAAAgAABAAAAAAAAAAEAAAAAAAAAFAhAAAAAgAA

AAAAAAMAAAAAABAAABAAAAAAEAAAEAAAAAAAABAAAADwIAAAVQAAAEAgAAAoAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABoIAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC50

ZXh0AAAA6AAAAAAQAAAAAgAAAAIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACAAAGAuZGF0YQAAAFABAAAAIAAA

AAIAAAAEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABVieWB7AQAAACQjUX8UOilAAAAg8QEi0X8ULgA

IEAAUOibAAAAg8QI6QAAAADJwwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVYnlgewUAAAAkLgAAAAAiUXs

uAAAAwBQuAAAAQBQ6GUAAACDxAi4AQAAAFDoXwAAAIPEBI1F7FC4AAAAAFCNRfRQjUX4UI1F

/FDoSQAAAIPEFItF9FCLRfhQi0X8UOhd////g8QMiUXwi0XwUOguAAAAg8QEycMA/yVoIEAA

AAD/JWwgQAAAAP8lcCBAAAAA/yV0IEAAAAD/JXggQAAAAP8lfCBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEhl

bGxvIHdvcmxkLiBJdCBpcyAlbHUgKk5JWCBUaW1lCgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAACEIAAAAAAAAAAAAACgIAAAaCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAqyAAALIg

AAC7IAAAyCAAANkgAADpIAAAAAAAAKsgAACyIAAAuyAAAMggAADZIAAA6SAAAAAAAABtc3Zj

cnQuZGxsAAAAdGltZQAAAHByaW50ZgAAAF9jb250cm9sZnAAAABfX3NldF9hcHBfdHlwZQAA

AF9fZ2V0bWFpbmFyZ3MAAABleGl0AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACwhAAABAAAAAgAAAAIAAAAYIQAA

ICEAACghAABAEAAAABAAADkhAABAIQAAAAABAHV4dHBhcnR5LmV4ZQBfc3RhcnQAbWFpbgAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

As fate would have it, I happened to be running it in a loop to show the program in action to my kids when the epoch actually passed in front of us. I got a screen shot that I will eventually post somewhere. I am too geeky. This was actually more amusing to me than the year 2000 change. That was tainted by the notion that the whole thing was really 'time approximate' and likely celebrated in the wrong year. This event, though, was right down to the exact second from the atomic clocks on the Internet. Cool if you are a geek. Likely way *not* cool if you are a civilian, but what are the odds a civilian is looking at this?